Grandma Charged In Deathoffers Plea For Life Sentence

August 29, 2002|By Lisa J. Huriash Staff Writer

It was because the Oakland Park woman loved her baby granddaughter so much that she choked her to death, and then stuffed her in a freezer overnight alongside her Stouffer's dinners, her defense attorneys argue.

Christine Sharrow thought killing the 19-month-old -- whom she perceived as unloved by other family members -- was an act of love. And placing her in the freezer was meant to make sure the child didn't decay, attorney Barbara Brush told Broward County Circuit Court Judge Ronald J. Rothschild on Wednesday.

"In her delusional mind, maybe God would take care of this little girl," Brush said.

Contending that Sharrow was mentally ill the June 1996 morning Alexandria Witzky died and had experienced a "miserable" life, her attorneys asked Rothschild to spare her life.

Wednesday's hearing will resume Sept. 30 when Rothschild will decide whether to accept Sharrow's offer to the state: a guilty plea to charges of murder and child abuse in exchange for life in prison without parole.

Or, Rothschild could reject the plea and send the case to trial this fall, where the state will ask the jury to sentence her to death. At trial, Sharrow will plead not guilty by reason of insanity.

Prosecutor Chuck Morton said the crime deserves the death penalty because it was "heinous."

Sharrow, 47, told police in a taped confession played in court Wednesday that she fed her granddaughter Froot Loops after the girl had been dropped off at her one-room efficiency. Then, she said, she decided the child would be better off dead. She put the baby on her lap and used a light-blue sash to strangle her for about 10 to 15 minutes.

"It took a long time for her to die," Sharrow told detectives. She was "struggling to stay alive. Just when I thought she would be dead, she wasn't. She gasped for breath. Oh God."

After she was convinced Alexandria was dead, she wrapped her in a poncho and a white Kmart bag, placed her in the freezer compartment of her refrigerator, told the baby "I love you," hung the sash back up in the closet, and went to sleep.

When the detectives asked her why she put the baby in a refrigerator, she answered: "To keep her from decaying."

Asked what else was in the freezer, she answered: "Stouffer's dinners and ice cubes."

The next morning she went to Burger King, then Sawgrass Mills mall and called her sister from a pay phone to tell her what happened. Her sister called police.

Sharrow had been released from prison in 1994 and was on probation when she strangled her granddaughter. She had served three years of a seven-year sentence for manslaughter for killing her boyfriend in a drunken rage.

Sharrow's second attorney, Jeffrey Glass, argued she had a troubled life, including being placed in foster care at 13 months old, adopted by alcoholics at age 5 and molested by an uncle at age 8. She was in and out of hospitals for psychiatric treatment and repeated suicide attempts for years.

He pointed to police photos of her apartment that showed teddy bears everywhere. That shows Sharrow loved the baby, and made her apartment fitting for the child, Glass said.

"Ricky, Ricky," Sharrow called out after her son, the father of the dead child, who rushed out of the courtroom when the hearing finished for the day.

"She wants to look at him," sighed Sharrow's mother, Irene Urbano.

Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4557.